Money Not Enough to Get the UFC into Ontario, Canada

Clearly, the UFC loves Canada and the feeling is mutual. That’s why there have already been two Octagon events in Montreal, Quebec with a third on the way. Unfortunately, it appears Ontario won’t be on the Outlook calendar anytime soon.

Despite the massive amounts of money a UFC pay-per-view event would generate for the province, it appears it’s not important enough for Ontario to move forward with sanctioning the sport of mixed martial arts at this point in time.

The UFC has been trying to expand their footprint inside Canada for quite some time, including UFC 115 which is expected to be held in Vancouver this June.

Every UFC event that Canada has hosted thus far has resulted in record setting sell outs, including UFC 113 in May, and that’s part of the reason why the UFC loves going to the “Great White North.”

UFC 83 was the first event held in Canada and it was able to pull in a whopping $5.1 million dollars at the gate. This prompted an Octagon return at UFC 97, which garnered the promotion another $4.9 million dollars.

UFC 83 and UFC 97 rank third and fifth, respectively, in terms of all-time UFC live gate revenue. UFC 66, which featured the December 2006 rematch between light heavyweight champs Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz, still ranks #1 with almost $5.4 million.